The funeral plans for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth have been leaked. Website Politico quotes extensively from the script, from the text that ministers will use to inform their officials to a ‘spontaneous’ church service planned at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Under the code name Operation London Bridge minute details have been worked out for the ten days between death and interment in the home chapel of Windsor Castle. “From the mundane to the absurd”, Politico sums up the plans. There are plans to steer the potentially hundreds of thousands of interested people in the right direction, to receive foreign guests and to send the new King Charles on a tour through the country.
It all starts with a phone call from the Queen’s Personal Secretary to the Prime Minister. This then sets in motion a telephone boom to important ministers and top officials. A plan has already been written for them: in an email that begins with “We have just been informed about the death of Her Majesty the Queen” officials will be asked to handle the news discreetly.
‘Spontaneous’ church service
The public will be informed by a message via the PA news agency. Downing Street will fly the flag at half mast immediately afterwards. Politico writes that that intention led to unrest within the prime minister’s official residence, because there is not always someone present who can reach the flagpole. The problem seems to have been solved by now.
The website of the Royal House will go black, with only a short announcement about the death of the Queen, as earlier this year also happened at the death of her husband Philip. Ministries are being asked to postpone non-urgent announcements and to sober their Twitter accounts with only the departmental coat of arms.
At 6 p.m. on the day of the death, the new king will address the people. At the same time, a memorial service is to begin at St. Paul’s, attended by the Prime Minister and core cabinet members. “That service is planned in such a way that it seems ‘spontaneous’,” writes Politico.
Charles on a trip
On the second day after the death, Elizabeth’s coffin must be returned to Buckingham Palace. When she dies at her country house Sandringham or Balmoral, the coffin is returned to the capital by train. The Prime Minister will then receive the funeral procession at St. Pancras Station.
A day later, Charles leaves as the new king on a tour of the country, called Spring Tide in the script. He starts in Scotland, visits Northern Ireland the next day and visits Wales on the seventh day.
Meanwhile, in London, the Queen is laid out in Westminster Palace for three days. The intention is that the public can say goodbye 23 hours a day.
The day of the funeral will be a day of national mourning, with 2 minutes of silence around noon. The state funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey, after which the Queen will be interred in the chapel where her husband Philip is also buried.
Projecting
Buckingham Palace has not yet commented on the leak. British media think the palace will not go down well, if only because the 95-year-old monarch has buried her wife this year. According to Politico, there are no indications that the queen is ailing with her health.
Interestingly, Politico has gotten their hands on a piece that not many people would have gotten their hands on in its entirety: parts of it will have been shared with relevant services, but the entire playbook leaked out means that Politico had a high-ranking source.
Insiders say an investigation has already been launched into who released the top secret document.
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